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We had such high hopes. Predictions were good, the best we’d seen for a while, and the early stats were promising but the aurora fizzled out before we had a chance to see it. Our long summer evenings played a small part here. With so few hours of darkness, catching a sighting of the aurora…

The aurora can come in many different colours. From stunning greens to deep reds and velvety purples, the aurora never fails to amaze. But have you ever seen a golden aurora? In the photo above, captured by Andy Stables on 16th March 2016 from the Isle of Skye (Scotland), there’s a wonderful golden band of…

Thanks to generous funding from GradConsult, an SME specialising in graduate employment, the AuroraWatch UK team are pleased to announce that a new magnetometer will soon be added to our aurora alert network. As part of their newly-founded microgrant scheme, Gradconsult have provided funding for us to build a new Raspberry Pi based magnetometer and…

Traditionally, Earth’s aurora are well known for appearing as a bright green glow across the night sky. Whilst green is the most common colour we see, it’s certainly not the only one! In this article, we talk about the different colours you might be able to catch if you see the aurora, as well as…

As we blogged about back in March last year, AuroraWatch UK received funding to build an all-sky camera. Today, we have some news to share with you about it! For the past couple of weeks, we have been running a dedicated AuroraWatch UK camera from the roof of our home: the Department of Physics at…

The aurora Steve. Rémi Farvacque‎/Alberta Aurora Chasers (facebook) Nathan Case, Lancaster University A collaboration between aurora-hunting citizen scientists and a team of professional researchers has resulted in the discovery of a completely new type of aurora. The finding was made possible thanks to photos taken by aurora enthusiasts from across the globe which scientists could…

If you’re interested in the aurora or anything space related, we might just have the event for you! Lancaster University are holding a Community Day on Saturday 6th May. It will be a day full of exhibitions, mini talks, hands-on activities, food and drink, and live music and performance – all held within the University’s…

Woah, what a night! For the first time since October last year, AuroraWatch UK issued a red alert (at 20:45 BST). This was then followed up by a couple of hours of amber alert and surrounded by periods of minor geomagnetic activity (yellow alert). Alert explanation The red alert was generated by the magnetic disturbance…

The AuroraWatch UK team are happy to announce the release of our new Aurora Map. The map has been designed to provide lots of useful aurora information in an easy to understand way. Through both real-time and historical data, we hope it will help you track down the majestic aurora on your next aurora hunting…

The Ovation forecast layer appears on many aurora-related websites, including our own Aurora Map page. It’s a convenient way of graphically showing where an aurora might be seen, but we know it can cause some confusion about what is being shown and intrigue in how it is calculated. So let’s have a look at what…

It’s been a quiet start to the new year for aurora watchers in the UK, with only a single amber alert being issued in the whole of January and February combined. Perhaps this isn’t unsurprising considering that we are currently heading into a solar minimum, a drop in solar activity resulting from the Sun’s 11-year cycle. But, as reported…

Cold, wet afternoon? Bored? Wish you could see some pictures of the northern lights? Well read on! We’re delighted to share an exciting citizen science project with you called “The Auroral Zone“. Scientists from the University of Calgary in Canada need your help classifying thousands of images of the northern lights. The images have been…

Nathan Case, Lancaster University The northern lights are nature’s very own magnificent light show. They are the mesmerising end result of electrically charged particles from the sun colliding with the Earth’s upper atmosphere. Though more frequently witnessed from the polar regions, the UK and other places on similar latitudes are lucky enough for the aurora…

Although not related to the aurora, polar stratospheric clouds (also known as nacreous clouds) are a beautiful winter sky phenomenon. They only form when conditions in the stratosphere, a layer of our atmosphere at around 15-25km in altitude, are just right. One very important condition is that the temperature in the stratosphere must be below…

Over on the AuroraWatch UK Flickr page, photos of stunning auroral displays are shared with us regularly by some of the UK’s most talented photographers. Although aurora seen from the UK is often considerably weaker and less frequent than more northern countries, it doesn’t mean that it’s not there. As many of our followers have discovered, using the…